The Woodsman

How do you make a movie about an ex-con whose crime is so evil that the audience starts out not caring whether he lives or dies? You hire an actor who brings audience goodwill to the part, and you'd better make sure the guy's got the chops to not just coast on that goodwill but actively sell the character to the audience. You hire Kevin Bacon.

There's a line in MYSTIC RIVER in which Kevin Bacon's cop notes this about Sean Penn's ex-con: you can tell he's been in prison. You can see the tension in his shoulders, and that tension never goes away. Bacon really took that line to heart, as THE WOODSMAN practically trembles with the tension of Walter, Bacon's character. Walter just got out of prison, where he'd spent twelve years on a child molestation conviction: a crime with an exceptionally high recidivism rate. The tension of the film comes from the audience's wondering on which side of the percentages we'll find Walter at the end, and whether we'll care.

To sell the role, Bacon pulls another MURDER IN THE FIRST, putting his all into a role to prove (once again) that he's a serious actor. He pulls it off, managing to draw us into the world of a man who has committed crimes that some say merits death. We come to believe in his character, in his struggles with his compulsions, and in his attempts to reconnect with the world after a long time away.

THE WOODSMAN isn't a perfect movie, but I commend its honesty and its commitment to its story, its characters, and its audiencee. See it because it's a real gem in Bacon's filmography. This will be one of the roles for which he'll be remembered.